


an unwilling pioneer

by southofzero



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Default Shepard, F/M, Garrus Has A Nice Voice, Heavy Foreshadowing, Mass Effect 1, Name Symbolism, Or platonic, Pre-Relationship, cultural discussions involving names, mentions of animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 14:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14262606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/southofzero/pseuds/southofzero
Summary: A younger Shepard had believed that Laika became a comet, burning a path through the vast black sky. She knew better now.Shepard and her new recruit discuss their names.





	an unwilling pioneer

**It's strange, to think what endless lengths people will go to justify suffering.**

.:.:.:.

"Dr. T'Soni mentioned your name today."

Shepard looks up. Not a surprise; T'Soni really knew her stuff. By now, she probably had background knowledge on every member of the crew. Shepard raises a brow, and makes a noise in the back of her throat when she realizes he can't see it. "What about me?"

"The meaning," he replies, pausing as he tugs the leaky omni-gel tank down from its hold. "She said it was a bastardization meaning 'guide' or 'protector'."

She knew this, but she'd never thought about it. 'Shepard' and all of its variations were common surnames. Some families changed theirs after the Effect, opting for names that matched their stations, colonies, or occupations, but Shepard was an old name. Nothing new.

She shrugs, more to herself than him. "Shepherds were people that protected herds of animals. Mostly sheep. The name's been around for centuries."

"Your people were named after their occupations?"

Garrus's voice is different from under the Mako, the reverb more intense. She wonders what he would sound like in an empty room, without all the ship interference. Shaking away the thought, Shepard kicks out her heels and plants the butt of her Avenger on the floor.

"For some, yeah." She doesn't know if her lineage traces back to some centuries-old family of shepherds, and she doesn't particularly care. Her father was an agriculture specialist, and her mother was a retired marine. She was a colony kid turned soldier. There wasn't much to dissect, and she liked it that way.

He's gotten omni-gel on his hands, and Shepard watches as he rubs his gloved palms together. It would be easier if he took them off, but her meager education in cultural sensitivity taught her that turians were private about their hands. They hid them to look less threatening -- probably out of politeness. Downsides of being a warlike race in a world that valued diplomacy.

"What about the rest of your name?" he asks, and Shepard shrugs noncommittally.

"Jane is a common name," Shepard replies, running the rag down the length of her rifle's barrel. "It doesn't mean much of anything, anymore."

Garrus hums, twisting the wrench back. She hears the _click-click-click_ of a bolt in the steering column, and her eyes linger on the underside of the Mako. She'd learned how to jury-rig them in her Academy days, but she hadn't laid a hand on one since Akuze. After that mission, she had enough rank to pass it off onto someone else.

Good riddance, really. She was no engineer.

"What does your name mean?" she asks, suddenly curious. "Do turians assign meaning to them like we do?"

Garrus pauses his work, and he taps the wrench against the hollow omni-gel hold. "Unity in war," he says after a moment, sitting up. He ducks to avoid cracking his brow against the Mako's underside. "The Vakarian name means 'honor in death', so I suppose it was meant to be a mantra."

"T'Soni mentioned that many humans have middle names," Garrus adds, sounding pensive. "What does yours mean? If you have one, that is."

"You sure are stuck on names," she replies. "Does T'Soni give the alien crew a rundown on humans every night, or just on special occasions?"

Garrus laughs, the sound low and lighthearted. He grabs the replacement tank, and ducks back under the Mako to replace it. "Only sometimes. I was just curious. C-Sec didn't offer much education regarding human culture."

Shepard hesitates, mulling over her answer. There's a bit of oil gunk stuck in the gun's housing -- probably leftover from a sloppy cleaning last time. It's really no use, this gun is going to be useless forever, but she still insists on cleaning it once a week. Old habits and all that bullshit.

"Laika," she says. She double-checks the safety like any proper marine before pushing the trigger back to scrub. "It was the name of someone in history. An unwilling pioneer."

The first living creature in space. No provisions were made for her return, and she died there. A younger Shepard had believed that Laika became a comet, burning a path through the vast black sky. She knew better now. Laika had died bitterly and burned up in the atmosphere, and all of her suffering had meant nothing in the end.

Her mother had given her the name before her birth, on a starship halfway to Mindoir. They were pioneers in their own right, venturing to the farthest reaches of Council space. She supposes her mother was more like Laika than she ever was. Doomed to a one way trip.

It was nearly poetic.

Shepard clicks her tongue and swings the Avenger around to study the polish. It's still chipped, scratched, and scuffed to high hell, but the parts that can still shine are gleaming. "She was a dog that human scientists shot into space. She died up there, but she was the first living thing to orbit Earth."

Garrus is quiet as he finishes sealing up the Mako's under-body, and when she looks up, he's fixed his eyes on her. "That's a sad namesake," he says hesitantly, and Shepard belts out a laugh.

"What, being named after a dog?"

He flares his mandibles and looks away, focusing on the ruined omni-gel tank in front of him. "I was referring to the dog's death, but yes, that too."

Shepard stands up to balance her sniper rifle against the worktable. "Humans have named their children after stranger things." She offers her hand, and Garrus glances at it before accepting her help. She hauls him up with a heavy tug, stepping back as she pulls away.

"They say it was a necessary evil, after all," she says, but she still doesn't believe it. Pretty hypocritical for a decorated solider to draw the line at sacrificing a dog in the name of science.

(She thinks fleetingly of herself at eleven, after learning the fate of her namesake. She'd cried for hours and dreamt of a lonely dog for longer. She'd wondered what it had felt like to be Laika, to burn up and die alone. All the people on Earth, and no-one had been there for her last moments.

Laika, immortalized for her suffering, and a greater friend to mankind than mankind was to her.)

 

 


End file.
